downtown photos

[Alaskan Mutt]

Originally Posted by j_k_k

The latest building craziness is West Pasco; you wouldn't recognize Road 68.

I forgot all about Road 68 and that area. I use to work maint at the Tri Cities Airport. People would steal the fencing we put up along Road 36. We finally welded the fencing to the poles. That slowed them down a little.

[j_k_k]

Originally Posted by Alaskan Mutt

I forgot all about Road 68 and that area. I use to work maint at the Tri Cities Airport. People would steal the fencing we put up along Road 36. We finally welded the fencing to the poles. That slowed them down a little.

These days, with the terror threat level constantly at Orange (which I think means that someone was spotted reading the Koran at Starbucks in Joplin, so be Very Afraid), I can only imagine how they'd react to that. The threat level would rise well past Red (everyone panic and swallow anything the government says) into Crimson (lose a football game) or even Vermillion (start building your own CBR shelter, hoarding silver and ammo and making very nice with your local Mormons).

[puerco]

Originally Posted by tcres

Kennewick: 65,860
Pasco: 52,647
Richland: 38,708

The lack of a "real" downtown is my biggest complaint of the Tri-Cities. Most cities that are much smaller then this area as a whole have much larger, interesting downtown areas.

In my parents childhood downtown Kennewick/Pasco was were you went to shop. That's where the department stores were before the mall. Now most of them consist of bars as mentioned previously. I think if it weren't for the bars most of them would be in worse shape. Pasco seems to have a more active downtown but its mostly hispanic orientated and I do not go there much except for special events, such as the farmers market or fiery food festival.

Driving North/South on 395 has to encourage the worst impression possible of the Tri-Cities. Dilapidated mobile home parks on both sides of the river definitely don't help. Besides that all you see is the typical big box retailers... Wal-Mart is one of the first things you notice when entering Kennewick... ugh. I really hope the Southridge area is developed in a more tasteful fashion.

I've never really understood the concentration of manufactured home sales on that stretch of 395 either. Why are they all right there? That has to be all of the show lots in the Tri-Cities, I've never seen one elsewhere.

The only tall buildings you really see in the area are grain elevators. I think the tallest buildings in all three cities only reach six stories. Maybe one or two of the federal/hanford related in Richland are seven but I'm not sure. A eight story condo project under construction in Richland was scrapped and is now going to be a hotel/office building. Kadlec Hospital is six stories now but they plan to build up to ten stories in the next couple years I believe.

One of the things I miss about living in a larger city the most is the downtown/skyscrapers. I would love to see this area build up and preserve more of the natural land.

You answered all of my questions re: the tri-cities. My parents met while working for the War Dept. in Pasco during WW2. I hope they start building up in your area, too, since I hate seeing the desert being paved over with development. The desert holds a lot of fascination to this Westsider.

[j_k_k]

Here is what amazes me: the absolute proliferation of tattoo parlors. We must have twenty in Kennewick alone. I know ink has gotten more popular, but good lord.